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Gloria J. "Mimi" Winer
After a five year battle with cancer, Mimi passed peacefully at 2am on February 19, 2017. She is survived by her husband Jim, her brother Alan Jackson of Long Beach, Ca, her daughter Cathie Condon of New York City, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren including Cassi, 20, who lives with her and her husband in Fort Myers, FL. There will be no services, and her ashes will be scattered in the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico.
In her death, as well as in her life, she would have wanted to contribute to the dollmaking world. In lieu of cards or flowers, please contribute to help Lisa Lichtenfels who is also battling cancer at: www.gofundme.com/inspirelisa or by contributing to the American Cancer Society.
And what Mimi would enjoy most, is for you to get together with your fellow dollmakers at your next convention or doll club meeting and have an ice cream social to commemorate her life.
Gloria J. "Mimi" Winer has been an original cloth doll artist since 1983. She has studied fine arts at the National Academy of Arts and Design, the School of Visual Arts, the New School/Parson's School of Design, and with Pe Ling Liang of NYU. She studied sculpture at Monmouth College. She has studied dollmaking with NIADA artists Lisa Lichtenfels, Bob McKinley, Martha Armstrong Hand, Mr. George Stuart, Antonete Cely, and many others.
Gloria was a member of the Society of Creative Designers for 25 years before it was disbanded in 2007. She is an artist member of the Original Doll Artists Council of America (ODACA), the Canadian Doll Artists Association (CDAA), the Textile Study Group of New York City, and is Past President of the National Doll and Toy Collector's Club of New York City (UFDC). Her business is a member of the Creative Industries of America Association. She is or has been a member of the Board of Directors of several Doll Art Organizations.
Her work as a doll artist represents the leading edge of what can be done with her medium. She is constantly seeking out and testing new materials, has developed many new techniques and invented some exclusive tools. Gloria shares her information with the doll and craft world through her (retired) quarterly magazine, Let’s Talk About Dollmaking, columns and frequent articles in many Doll, Art and Craft magazines, her web site at Mimidolls.com, and through the books and patterns she writes with her husband and partner for more than 30 years. Among their publications are many instructional patterns and an in-depth study of the new clays, Mimi's New Clays for Dollmaking.
Gloria's doll patterns include lengthy step-by-step instructions so that even beginning dollmakers can successfully complete a doll. Effectively they are instructional books that allow many variations over and above the specific doll. They typify her outstanding ability as a teacher. She loves sharing her techniques and it shows in all her work. Gloria is in constant demand throughout the U.S.A, Canada and Australia to teach at conferences, seminars, and doll clubs.
Gloria Winer's work has been well recognized by her peers. She received a special award for her contributions to cloth doll making from the National Cloth Doll Makers Association, and a Presidential Award from the National Institute of American Doll Artists ( NIADA), and for her contributions to that organization. Most recently she received the First Award in Excellence for the significant contribution made in the development of the first Masters Magic and Apprentices Workshops held at Maroochydore, Australia in 2005.
Gloria's prizes for her original dolls include a 1st and 2nd award in the Artist Division at the UFDC National Conference in 1994 and 1993, and 1st place in the 1994 competition at Dimensions in Cloth, an annual exhibit and competition for cloth dollmakers.
Gloria's work has been part of Dollmaker's Magic and The Figure in Cloth; shows that traveled throughout the United States to galleries and museums. Her work has also been on exhibit at the Wenham Museum, Wenham, MA, in two exhibits of Dolls of the 21st Century at the Springfield Museum, Springfield, OR, and by invitation at the Musée des arts décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, in Paris.
Gloria’s work has been featured in several books by her peers including: The Anatomy of a Doll by Susanna Oroyan, Mother Plays With Dolls, by elinor peace bailey, Cloth Dolls From Ancient to Modern, A Collector’s Guide with Values by Linda Edwards, and in numerous doll magazines.
Since 2004, Gloria has created and donated a yearly bear to the Broadway Bears Annual Auction, a part of the Broadway Cares, Equity Fights AIDS Foundation. This charity raises funds for Broadway theatrical employees suffering with AIDS and HIV by auctioning teddy bears dressed in recreations of original Broadway theater costumes.
Our thanks to all of you who have been so generous with your prayers and well wishes. We appreciate every one of you. Cassi and I hope to be able to publish three new Mimi patterns (Mimi’s Wee Folk – Elves, The High Priestess, and Spartacus) that are almost finished in the near future. We will also be re-issuing Pretty Faces and Victoria Rose as e-books in a few months.
Happy Dolling,
"Mimi" & Jim Winer
Our thanks to all of you for your messages and prayers. Please forgive me for not acknowledging you individually, but I (Jim) do most stuff now except for dollmaking, and we have just downsized Mimi’s studio and moved to a new, smaller apartment.
Previously, Mimi’s colorectal cancer had been inactive in the colon, but not before it had spread to the liver. The latest attempt to kill the cancer involved using radioactive beads inserted into the tumor through a catheter. It was hoped that that would improve her health enough to do a liver resection to remove anything remaining.
Mimi has been a lot healthier lately. The radioactive beads used to treat the tumor have helped. She has been more active, and has helped us move to our new apartment. (Including the painful downsizing of her studio.)
It takes about 3-6 months to see the results of the beads. We got the results of the PET CT scan which covers skull base to mid-thigh. (This is the one with the radioactive sugar that goes directly to areas of high metabolic growth, i.e., cancer.)
Abdomen: Most of the (colorectal) cancer in the liver seems to have shrunk to about 1/8 of previous size. It is not very active.
Chest: The cancer has metastasized again with two small spots in each lung ranging from 0.4 cm to 1.0 cm.
This means that we will NOT do the liver resection to remove the tumor as originally planned, because that would not get it all.
On the other hand, the cancer in the liver is much smaller, so the chemo may work better. The spread of the cancer means that we have started chemo again with a new drug.
Mimi’ cancer has an identified variation of the KRAS gene which provides instructions for making a protein that is involved in regulating cell division. The new chemo, Vectibix, is a monoclonal antibody that attaches to the cancer cell and makes the cancer cell visible to the immune system. White blood cells then attack the cancer cells. We’re hoping this will do it. Unfortunately, it, too, has some side effects. Mimi is having skin reactions, nausea and fatigue. These side-effects are nowhere near as dangerous as the ones from the original oxyplatin.
The doctor will also look into clinical trials as there are new specific therapies for cancers of this type.
We just got the results back from the latest PET scan. (Rounds 1, 2, 3 and 4 are reviewed below.)
We just got the results back from the latest PET scan. The tumor seems to be dying from the inside out. While the overall size hasn't decreased, the interior of the tumor shows significantly less activity. Apparently, the outside of the tumor will collapse eventually as the interior is cleaned away. This appears to be the result of the Avastin preventing new blood vessel growth. There are no signs of cancer anywhere else.
The doctors are reevaluating, and we may do a new contrast CT to determine if it is feasible to try the radioactive beads to kill the rest of the tumor and then surgically remove the remains.
Over the last few weeks, Mimi has been feeling better, but she has been having a down week this week with both nausea and pain. It looks like it will be a little bit better going into next week.The cancer is all in one place. Maybe we can get it all out. (Rounds 1, 2 and 3 are reviewed below.)
Well, the cancer is not getting small enough, fast enough. A chemical indicator (CEA?) has gone up, so we did another PET scan. Now only one piece of cancer is left, but it's growing. So we've added to the chemotherapy. Camptosar interferes with the cancer DNA when it tries to divide. Avastin slows the growth of new blood vessels. The cancer can't get enough blood to grow. The CEA has gone back down. But, since the cancer is all in one place, we might be able to use radioactive beads or surgery to get rid of it.
The radioactive &quo;beads&quo; aren't beads at all — they are radioactive &quo;big&quo; molecules that can't pass through blood vessels below a certain size. The idea is to push a catheter up through the femoral (thigh) artery and follow the arteries all the way back to the liver and into the tumor. Then inject the radioactive stuff so that it gets carried into the tumor, and can't get out the other side because it's too big. It has a half-life of 11 days, and it puts all it's radiation directly into the cancer. Then by 90 days (maybe sooner) the radiation is no longer detectable.
Did you know that the liver is the only organ in the human body that will regrow itself? If you use surgery to take out the cancer (and part of the liver), the liver will grow back. You just have to have enough left to keep you going while it grows back.
So what's the catch?
So the doctors are still talking about it, and we are getting a little bit stressed.
We'll have more information in a few more weeks.
The cancer is back and we're now in round 3 of the fight. (Rounds 1 and 2 are reviewed below.)
The problem started on April 18th. Mimi tripped over one of the curbs in the parking lot in front of our apartment. When she fell, she hit her head against the car door. She thought she had a terrible case of whiplash.
We did something very dangerous. We drove her to the emergency room instead of calling an ambulance. They found she had a broken neck at C1 (top of the spine, the one that usually leaves you paralyzed). She had surgery two days later to put a screw into her neck to hold things still until it healed. She had to stop chemotherapy while her neck healed.
She spent a terrible month in a hard neck brace that didn't allow her to move her head at all. She even had trouble opening her mouth.
After a month in the hard brace, she moved on to a soft neck brace. That made things a lot better and allowed her to get some work done. She has been in physical therapy since June so that she has enough freedom of motion to turn her head to drive again.
While her neck was healing, the cancer grew again. Now she's back to chemotherapy and it's getting smaller again. In the mean time, she has a bad week when she has chemo, and a good week in between. She'll have a PET scan again in another few months and hopefully, the cancer will be undetectable again.
At the end of the first round, there was no evidence of disease. We decided to discontinue the chemotherapy because of the side effects on Mimi's mind and the chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). That was over a year ago.
Since that time, Mimi has had physical therapy for both hands and feet. She has worked small projects because of the limited amount of time she can work at a stretch. We have completed video taping for Mimi's Mannequins & Pattern Draping. We have completed most of the base video taping for the first volume of the Make a Doll with Your GrandKid series. We had a decent year if not altogether good.
Then one of the PET scans came back showing a growth where one of the metastasized spots had been on the liver.
Mimi had five radiation treatments. The major side effect was overwhelming tiredness. The primary effect was nothing. The cancer didn't seem to care. So, now Mimi is back on a different chemotherapy. This one doesn't cause chemo fog or peripheral neuropathy. It's principle side effects are constant nausea, chronic fatigue, and generally feeling poorly.
But the cancer is going away again.
And Mimi is designing two new dolls. They will be Spartacus and the High Priestess made in knit fabric with a much simpler and easier patterns.
For a complete review of our current pattern status, see the separate article Status Update
I can’t fully express how much I appreciate the prayers and other forms of positive energy sent into the Universe on my behalf. I know your help has contributed to my healing.
My stage 4 colorectal cancer showed up in 11 months and it’s pretty much gone away in the next 11 months.
The Good News is that my last PET Scan showed the lesions in the liver and the original mass are both almost undetectable. I will have a colonoscopy in the fall to know for sure it is all gone. I have been off chemo for about a month, and I will stay off indefinitely. (Never really cured, only in remission.)
I will continue to have blood-work and have my port flushed on a monthly basis, and do another PET Scan in 3 months.
All my side effects are gone except for 2. This is the wonderful good news for me and my family.
The Not Quite So Bad News is that my year-old chemo brain should clear up in a few months. My family is very happy about that as it is driving them crazy.
The Bad News is that the Neurologist tells me that the Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CINP) is permanent. I refuse to settle for that and hope for improvement over time – physical and occupational therapy and massage of hands and feet. I need to get over this now so I can drive again and get back to my first love, teaching.
The Neurologist is primarily concerned with alleviating the pain rather than improving on the function. Eventually, he wrote me a script for the same type of therapy that is used for Diabetes caused Peripheral Neuropathy. The therapist says I will be driving again in a year. (Actually, two therapists, one for hands and arms, and one for legs and feet.) They’ve put me on an exercise program that’s designed to open up new channels for nerve growth – the places that have died have to be bypassed, they won’t come back.
There is no pill, and I would be afraid of it if there was a pill – there’s a problem with side-effects on every damn drug.
Because of the serious neuropathy, handwriting and typing is painful and almost unreadable. The chemo-brain causes me to forget words, have a very short attention span, and very poor short-term memory.
I had to stop working on the DVD on Doll Hair for Dollmaker’s Journey because I simply cannot think clearly or use my hands effectively. I hope to continue this project later this year. Mary Ann at Dollmaker’s Journey has promised to do one if I did not. I hope she does this as there is a need for a good hair book. If I am able to complete it, it will be different anyway. Always room for one more.
Jim is going to concentrate on getting Earth Angels and Mannequins finished.
Jim is working on getting me to storyboard and then voice over instead of talking when I’m on camera. (I write out the script steps and voice over, then we shoot the video clip and record the sound separately.) Jim assembles the clips and voice over tracks. This avoids the problem of having to work and talk at the same time on the camera. I’m hoping to do about three small projects (simple dolls) this year including one with my great grandkid.
Happy Dolling,
Love,
Mimi,
